(AP) No red carpet, no nattily dressed athletes, no house band or monologue poking fun at the past year’s top athletes and moments.
This was a different version of The ESPYS.
The focus of Sunday night’s show on ESPN was hope and inspiration in the time of coronavirus.
NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, along with soccer star Megan Rapinoe and WNBA star Sue Bird, hosted the pre-produced show remotely from their respective homes in Seattle. Each wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts to open the show, and touched on the lives of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who were killed by police, as well as the life of Ahmaud Arbery. Three men, including a former police officer, are charged in Arbery’s death.
Rapinoe and Bird urged their fellow white athletes to “don’t just listen. Help.”